**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop Elements : *Program Basic

This tutorial will show you how to create and edit text in PSE A quick overview of the warp function is also included along with tips for dealing with extensive journaling in your layout.

Creating Text

1. Click on the Text Tool in the Toolbox to start creating text on your layout.
2. Before typing in your text you can set your font, font size, and color as necessary in the Options toolbar. These settings can all be changed after adding text to your layout too.
   a. Font- Select font to use from the pull down list of all the installed fonts.
   b. Style- Select a style like bold or italic if the chosen font comes in various styles
   c. Size- Determine how large the text will be on your layout.
   d. Faux style- Make the text bold, italic, underlined or strike through even if the font does not come with those style options
   e. Alignment- Set the text to be left, center or right justified
   f. Leading- Change the amount of spacing between lines of text. (PSE3 only)
   g. Color- Select the color of the text.
   h. Style- Apply a layer style directly to the text without having to go to the Layer Style Palette. (PSE3 only)
   i. Warp- Change the text for a straight line of text to an arc, fish eye, twist and many more options. This option is best used after the text has already been created.
   j. Text orientation- Change existing text from horizontal to vertical orientation or vice versa.
3. Click on your layout roughly where you want your text to appear.
4. Type in your text. Hit the enter key anytime you need to go to a new line.
5. Click the checkmark when you are finished adding text.

Editing existing text

1. With the text tool active you can click on any existing text in your layout and make changes to it. Sometimes the changes do not display correctly as you edit the text.
2. Click on the checkmark to accept the changes and the text will appear correctly with all the corrections that were made.

Changing the appearance of existing text

1. Make sure that the text layer to be changed is the active layer.
2. Click on the Text Tool in the Toolbox.
3. Now any changes made in the Options toolbar will automatically be applied to the active layer of text. This is a very fast way to try out different fonts for word art or font sizes for journaling.

Warping Text

1. Make sure that the text layer to be changed is the active layer.
2. Click on the Text Tool in the Toolbox.
3. Click on the Warp button in the Options toolbar.
4. In the Warp Text window, select the style of warp to apply to the text.
   Hint: The arc style is good for getting text to go around a circle.
5. Change settings in the Warp Text window to achieve the desired look for the text
   

   Normal text	Warped text

Adding extensive journaling

Unfortunately there is not a text box function in PSE. One way to work around this is to type up journaling in MS Word or another word processor. That way everything is spell checked and it is easy to review the journaling for grammar errors.

1. Once the text is correct in MS Word adjust the margins so that the width of the text is approximately the size it will be in the layout.
2. Add carriage returns to the text.
3. Copy and paste the text into PSE as a new layer of text. If the width of text is not quite correct in PSE, go back to MS Word and make changes until the outcome is acceptable.